The 2008 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was held from May 30 through June 25,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and was part of the

2008 NCAA Division I baseball season The 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 22, 2008. The season was the first to have a uni ...

. The 64

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

Division I

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

teams were selected out of an eligible 286 teams on May 26, 2008. Thirty teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conference, and 34 teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. Thirty-eight of the 64 selected teams participated in the 2007 tournament. The 2008 tournament culminated with 8 teams advancing to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

at historic

Rosenblatt Stadium Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium was a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the minor league Omaha Royals, now known as the Omaha Storm Chasers. Rosenblatt Stadium was the largest m ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest ...

, on June 14. The

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

beat the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

in the best-of-three championship series to win the NCAA Men's Division I Baseball Championship. Fresno State became the lowest seeded team (4th in the Regionals) to win the National Championship in NCAA history, and the fifth consecutive baseball team to win the title that was not one of the eight national seeds. They were considered a "

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

" team throughout the tournament. This was only the third national championship of any kind in school history, following the 1968 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament and the 1998 NCAA Division I softball national champions. Fresno State sophomore third baseman Tommy Mendonca won the Most Outstanding Player Award. Tommy hit four home runs and had 11 RBIs and also made a number of spectacular plays in the field. The first day of the 2008 CWS was moved to Saturday (June 14) from the traditional Friday. Also, if all games were needed in the first double-elimination round, it would take eight days to complete rather than seven. The NCAA cited the need to be more flexible in the super-regional round in case of inclement weather. It also allowed for greater potential ticket revenue, in part because the extra "if-necessary" day would now be ticketed separately if both games are played.

Bids

Automatic bids

Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.

Bids by conference

National seeds

''Bold'' indicates CWS participant. # Miami (FL) (47–8) #

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

(46–12) # (45–11) #

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

(48–10) # (37–19) # (42–13) # LSU (43-16-1) #

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(35-21-1)

Regionals and super regionals

Regional schedule

Regional rounds were held Friday, May 30 through Monday, June 2. Each regional followed a similar format, with 2 games played on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and one on Monday if needed. Best-of-three super regionals were held Friday, June 6 through Monday, June 9. Four series were played Friday-Sunday and four series were played Saturday-Monday.

Brackets

Bold indicates winner. * indicates extra innings.

Coral Gables Super Regional

Hosted by Miami (FL) at Mark Light Field

Athens Super Regional

Hosted by Georgia at

Foley Field Foley Field is a baseball stadium in Athens, Georgia, United States. It is the home field of the University of Georgia Bulldogs college baseball team. The stadium holds 3,291 people. Foley Field was built in 1966. The stadium was renovated in ...

Fullerton Super Regional

Hosted by Cal State Fullerton at

Goodwin Field Goodwin Field is a 3,500-seat baseball park in the western United States, located in Fullerton, California. On the campus of California State University, Fullerton, it is primarily the home field of the four-time national champion CSUF Titans of ...

Tallahassee Super Regional

Hosted by Florida State at

Dick Howser Stadium Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium is a baseball venue located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, located adjacent to Doak Campbell Stadium on the campus of Florida State University. It is the home field of the Florida State Semi ...

Cary Super Regional

Hosted by North Carolina at

USA Baseball National Training Complex The USA Baseball National Training Complex is located in western Cary, North Carolina, off of Green Hope School Road. The Town of Cary was selected to be the new home of USA Baseball in 2002. It is home to the St. Augustine's College Falcons ba ...

Baton Rouge Super Regional

Hosted by LSU at Alex Box Stadium

Houston Super Regional

Hosted by Rice at Reckling Park

Tempe Super Regional

Hosted by Arizona State at

Packard Stadium Packard Stadium was a college baseball park in the southwestern United States, located in Tempe, Arizona, a suburb just east of Phoenix. It was the home field of the Arizona State Sun Devils of the Pac-12 Conference from 1974 to 2014. Opened ...

College World Series

Participants

Bracket

Championship series

Monday, June 23

=Game 14, 6:00 PM

Tuesday, June 24

=Game 15, 6:35 PM

Wednesday, June 25

=Game 16, 6:00 PM

All-Tournament Team

The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team.

Record by conference

The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, CS, and NC respectively stand for the regional finals, super regionals, College World Series teams, national semifinals, championship series, and national champion.

Tournament notes

* Oregon State was not invited to the NCAA tournament, marking the first time since

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

that the defending champion did not return to the following year's tourney (

). * Clemson was not invited to the NCAA tournament, breaking a streak of consecutive appearances for the Tigers that dated back to the 1987 season. * Dallas Baptist made its first appearance. DBU was the first independent institution to qualify for the Division I tourney (other than Miami (Fla.), which kept an independent schedule during its years in the Big East) since

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

did so in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

. *Michigan was the only non-#1-seed selected to host a regional, forcing #1 seed Arizona to play an away regional, as the NCAA organizing committee said it was trying to maintain geographical balance with the host sites.

Round 1

*Four No. 1 seeded regional host schools, out of 16 total, lost first-round games to No. 4 seeds: **Georgia 7, Lipscomb 10 **Stanford 2, UC Davis 4 **Florida St. 0, Bucknell 7 **Long Beach St. 3, Fresno State 7 *Five No. 3 seeds upset No. 2 seeds in the opening round.

Round 2

*Fresno State was the only #4 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament. *Tulane was the only #3 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament. *9 of the 16 #1 seeds registered wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Super regionals

*Six of the eight national seeds advanced to the College World Series. Only #3 seed Arizona State and #5 seed Cal State Fullerton were unable to make it past super regionals. *Fresno State became the first team in the history of the NCAA tournament to make it to the College World Series as a #4 regional seed.

CWS records tied or broken

* Most runs scored in an inning: 11 (tied)(

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...

, 9th inning, Game 1 against

) *Most runners left on base in a nine-inning game: 17 (tied) (

, Game 5 against

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

) * Most doubles hit by a player: 3 (tied) by Rich Poythress

against

, Game 11. * Most losses by a team who won the College World Series: 31 (Fresno State) * Lowest seed to win the College World Series: #4 regional seed, #89 RPI (Fresno State)

Television/radio/online coverage

Regionals

*During the regionals, ESPNU showed games from Coral Gables (Karl Ravech and Barry Larkin) and Fullerton (Kyle Peterson), with Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey in the Charlotte ESPNU studios. *

CBS College Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

was not originally scheduled to show any games, as in years past. However, it aired

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

's Friday and Saturday games through a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. *The Baton Rouge regional was shown regionally on

Cox Sports Television Cox Sports Television ( a.k.a. CST; sometimes referred to as Cox Sports TV) was an American regional sports cable and satellite television channel owned by Cox Communications. The channel, which serves the Gulf South region of the United Sta ...

, the Athens regional on

Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast Comcast Sports Southeast and Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) was an American regional sports network for the Southern United States that was operated as a joint venture between cable television providers Comcast and Charter Communications. In c ...

, and the final two days of the Tallahassee regional aired on

Sun Sports Bally Sports Sun is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local cover ...

Super regionals

*All super-regional games were shown on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the He ...

on television and

ESPN360 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (w ...

through online streaming video. Announcers included

Karl Ravech Karl Ravech (; born ) is an American journalist who works as the primary play by play commentator for ''Sunday Night Baseball''.Pam Ward Pam Ward is an on-air personality for the cable sports television network ESPN, serving as one of the play-by-play announcers for ESPN's coverage of the 2012 and 2013 Women's College World Series of Softball. She is a graduate of the University of ...

, Dave Ryan,

Brian Jordan Brian O'Neal Jordan (born March 29, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and National Football League safety. In the NFL, he played for the Atlanta Falcons, while he played in MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Los An ...

Robin Ventura Robin Mark Ventura (born July 14, 1967) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager. Ventura played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Do ...

, and Kyle Peterson. Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey made up the studio team (in

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, th ...

) for both regional and super-regional rounds.

College World Series

* All College World Series games were shown on

, or

ESPN Classic ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns 20%). The channel was originally la ...

on television and

through online streaming video. *

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

broadcast all CWS championship series games on radio. Participating institutions were allowed local broadcast rights in the earlier rounds, and games were also available on

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM, Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable televisi ...

and

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...

References

External links

Schedule, results, and game times
at

{{2008 NCAA Division I baseball tournament navbox NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Baseball in Houston